Ancient map of Arabia draws Sharjah International Book Fair visitors

Sharjah - The map is from the rare 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia, the first atlas printed north of the Alps and the first to contain illustrated woodcut maps.

The first woodblock printed map of the Arabian Peninsula, which is on display at the ongoing 39th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), is drawing curious crowds.

Oliver Pingel, the owner of French publishing house that exhibited the map, told Khaleej Times that it is the first woodblock printed depiction of the region, in spectacular contemporary hand colour. The map was used by a lot of ancient travellers and explorers, he pointed out.

The map is from the rare 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia, the first atlas printed north of the Alps and the first to contain illustrated woodcut maps. It contains the traditional 27 Ptolemaic maps, of which this is one, and there are five additional modern maps in it of Italy, Spain, France, Scandinavia, and the Holy Land. The Arabian Peninsula map is the most-sought-after of all 15th century maps of the region.